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For the first half of the workshop, we used some image theatre techniques.
To explore some of the words to do with the religious conversion.
So rather than sitting around and speaking, you spoke a language where you acted with our bodies.
We made pictures and images of some words of religious conversion, of faith, of religion,
what the difference was between those.
To explore a little bit about how there are different interpretations of these words
and some conversations around this.
We've had a great mix of participants here who are from some faith, some from nuns, some conversion, some not.
But it's been a really interesting kind of melting pot to have these interesting dialogues.
The whole nature of it and the fact that it's a theatre workshop that you actually do
perform your way to understand each other, that's what I thought was very intriguing.
And I think it did much more in much little time than would have happened had we had something like
a normal discussion or a chat or a talk around that.
I've really enjoyed this workshop because of the way that it allowed us to voice
thoughts about religious conversion that I think that generally would kind of be taboo.
Amongst the things that I've learnt is just how complex we are as human beings
and the responsibility that we have as whether it be faith or non-faith communities
to try to understand what's happening around us and to be there for each other.
If anything, it has just added that extra little bit to make me more of a well-rounded person
in the job that I do as an Imam, the pastoral role that I play,
but also in how I just interact with human beings that are around me in my daily life.
With regards to making me think about my own conversion, my own religious experience,
yes, it did. I mean, listening to other people's stories and especially using my body
to kind of go into concepts which I hadn't necessarily explored inwardly or outwardly through dialogue
was really, really helpful.
I think particularly with religion, maybe more than anything else in some ways,
there can be a tendency to be pretty certain about something.
And where is the possibility for dialogue with others if you are so certain about something?
So I think that was a question that just began to be raised in this workshop
and it's definitely something I would like to explore further.
I just feel like certainty is quite a dangerous thing and I think we explored that really well
and it was really fun and engaging and it could be light-hearted
when usually talking about these things, we wouldn't be able to be low-hearted.
The other thing I thought was fascinating was when we looked at the difference
between what faith meant and what religion meant.
And for some groups, this was a huge change.
You know, religion had become something much more ordered and structured,
whereas for other groups, it was only a small change.
There was one very small change.
But in a lot of them, faith felt like something more personal,
whereas religion felt like something more outgoing or collective or organised.
Just from some of the themes that came up during the workshops,
the different sessions that we had, I could pick up some of the voices
playing around these two central themes of hope and fear.
It has seemed as though perhaps the fear element has been somewhat a little bit more prominent
in the sense that there's been a fear of, let's say, being converted
or there's a fear of how to respond to those kind of situations,
as we saw in the role plays, where an individual is coming to kind of almost
force a particular worldview on you.
But also, I mean, not to just ignore the hope element as well,
there's been the hope that in the very attendance that we had in this workshop
and the very kind of jovial atmosphere that we had, especially with the food as well,
that there are people who are willing to understand the issue of religion
and religious conversion in different communities.
So that's a very hopeful thing for us.
We did a technique called the rainbow of desire, which was to use a specific story
of somebody being approached and trying to be converted
and broke that story down to explore all the desires and wants were in there,
how we could have maybe done something different.
What else was going on there under the surface?
And we started to get into some really interesting conversations about the emotions
that were involved in conversion and religious conversion
and about some of the sensitivities and where it's possible to have dialogue
if somebody is so truly believing in one thing.
Where is the possibility of dialogue within that?
Well, I think these days we tend to see religion as compartmentalized things
limited to a particular geography or a particular context from where they came.
So I think the hope and the fear both comes from the fact that the fear is like
if we keep boxing them as belonging to a particular time place
whereas the hope is that they actually come out of that place and take their own local manifestation
and that's something I've experienced in India when I was growing up
and that's where I see there is a lot of hope in this intermingling and the possibilities around that.
For me there is this kind of fear generated probably by the media
and a lot of things that we see about people becoming entrenched in their religions
about there being no hope and I certainly think that's also led to a sort of atheism
which has become quite militant as well and that's not so helpful within this thing
and I think that all generates a bit of a culture of fear.
Where hope came up in this workshop is immediately people began to work together
and listen together and think together
and immediately people across different religions began to share
and think about similar stories that they may have had and encountered
and I think when we can make those connections with other human beings
even though we may have slightly different beliefs there for me is a hope
and that happens a lot today and so that's the hope that I'm kind of been leaving with.
